Mike’s Hard Lemonade: Crafting a Targeted Tasting Program

Jake Buckingham, key account manager for Mike’s Hard Lemonade, knows the value of in-store tastings. “In order for retailers to give us good brand representation, they want to know we’re investing in the brand and going into their stores and helping invest in their stores specifically.” In 2015, the company held a large number of tastings in Texas. With so much money on the line, accurate event data and return on spend are critical. Lack of data is not an issue with the Palaterra Tastings Platform, a web-based tool that enables him to:

“It’s great because we can analyze the data and tweak our sampling programs to really target the consumers we’re going after. We can go out to the stores where the consumers are and not waste money in places where we’re not seeing a return on our investment,” said Buckingham. He also uses Palaterra to correct issues that arise midway through the sampling calendar. For example, if the company schedules tastings three weekends in a row, after the first weekend Buckingham can analyze the report and correct problems, such as insufficient product supply, prior to the next weekend. “That way we can right the ship before we’ve spent a bunch of money.”

Another advantage of the Palaterra Tastings Platform is the ability to pull relevant reports when talking with retailers. “I can show them the consumers we’re reaching—the comments by consumers in their stores. I can take the data and mine it however I like, depending on the audience. That’s huge.”

Learn how you can optimize your in-store tasting programs with the Palaterra Tastings Platform. For a free demo, contact Daniel Hernandez at (512) 229-5770, Daniel@palaterra.com, or fill out the demo request form.